The present invention relates to a telephone with a handwriting recognition function and more particularly, the present invention relates to telephone having user handwriting recognition which simultaneously identifies a user of the device.
In the prior art, access to another party by phone was typically achieved by employing the keys of the telephone. The surname of the party to whom connection was desired was entered with the appropriate keys and the string converted to a number which was subsequently dialed. Although useful, this procedure is not entirely efficient when many users connected to the same telephone network have a similar or identical surname.
One of the primary limitations is realized when a user wishes to obtain his or her saved messages. Usually, access involves entry of a password on the telephone keypad. This is the only level of security between the stored messages and the user who has the password. As is evident, use of such passwords is not an adequate security measure, since such passwords may be observed by unauthorized users and thus access granted to private messages.
A system and method would be desirable where unauthorized access to private messages and the absence of keypad entry of names and passwords were eliminated. The present invention addresses these necessities and provides for a higher level of security.
In accordance with one object of one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of effecting communication between a first phone and a second phone linked on a communications medium and connected to a public switched network, comprising:
providing the first phone and the second phone, at least one having a handwriting receiving area connected thereto;
providing a server connected between the communications medium and the public switched network, the server including handwriting decoding software, a phone agent in communication with the first phone and the second phone and a user agent in communication with the phone agent;
forwarding entered name data from the phone agent to the handwriting software;
decoding name entered and forwarding information to the phone agent;
forwarding the information from the phone agent to the user agent; and
effecting a call based on the information from the user agent.
In accordance with a further object of one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a system for communicating with a first phone and a second phone by handwriting translation, comprising:
a handwriting area connected to at least one of the first phone and the second phone;
a communications medium;
a public switched network connected to a server;
a telephony server connected to the communications medium, the server including: handwriting software for translating handwriting and returning translated information;
a phone agent for forwarding a name written to the handwriting software and receiving the translated information;
a user agent having stored data in communication with the phone agent to effect access to the stored data related to the translated information and dial a number based on accessed data.
The handwriting receiving area may comprise any of the known touchpad devices currently available and may be directly integrated with the telephone base or handset. Where this is not convenient, the device may be connected to the telephone as an auxiliary component.
Advantageously, the device prevents unauthorized users from accessing the system, since handwriting is matched to the user. This feature prevents privacy breach and further avoids the use of the keypad for making a call. As a concomitant convenience, log in procedures eliminate the use of passwords entered on the keypad; access is granted based on database verification of the handwriting of the user.
Having thus generally described the invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, illustrating preferred embodiments and, in which: